


Them

by superbloodmoon



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bruce Banner Feels, Fluff, Kissing, M/M, Mutual Pining, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Has Issues, Touching, ongoing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:08:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27962024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/superbloodmoon/pseuds/superbloodmoon
Summary: "This wasn't something you needed to be near-sighted for.You could see their spark from a mile away. One only needed to fan it into a flame."--Bruce Banner and Tony Stark's mutual pining from the POV's of every Avenger in their own separate times.
Relationships: Bruce Banner/Tony Stark, Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added
Kudos: 13





	Them

Clint Barton was a fair man.   
Strict at times; chill others; a hopeless teenager in an adult's body in others. He saw things better at a distance at times, but this wasn't one of them.   
The two scientists. The physicist and the engineer.   
Crawling through the vents, he could see their interactions.   
Tony had always quipped that he'd trap the vents so he couldn't see the interactions he had with the shy scientist that were kept so secret from the team, but he never acted on it.   
He could see the touches hurriedly withdrawn. He could see the glances they always cast towards the other when their backs were turned. The playful quips. The sass. 

This wasn't something you needed to be near-sighted for.   
You could see their spark from a mile away. One only needed to fan it into a flame.   
\--  
His day was fairly normal. At least for a superhero.   
Natasha had gone off to do who-knows-what in the Stark Tower gym (actually, Clint knew. It was gun practice. She always kept it so secretive when in reality what she did was, normally, normal); Steve and Bucky had gone off on some walk to a trail or something; Thor was, of course, not on-planet. He was probably whacking some space aliens with his "Mr. Physics Disobeyer" as Tony had dubbed it. Definitely more fun than what Barton was doing.   
Well, actually, no.   
See, Clint had set himself a mission.   
Get these two dumbasses together because they can't see stuff that's right in front of their own two eyes.  
Yeah.

He expertly crawled through the vents - his pants against the vent making 0 noise due to the specially-crafted material, and his breath being practically mute.   
He had, from day one, applauded his photographic memory. From the day he set foot into Stark Tower, he had gotten ahold of a map of the vents and memorized each and every pathway and the shortest routes from every room to any other.   
He especially knew where the lab was.

As he made his way there, he heard their voices. Their comments passed back and forth; bounced like a ping pong ball. Fluid.   
"...heat it to 167 to get the regility-flexibility ratio just right."  
"You seriously sound like the spider kid right now, you know that?"  
A small chuckle.  
"Yeah, whatever. Just get the temperature up, Tony."  
"Whatever Brucie," Tony responded. His voice was lighthearted and Clint could just hear the smile in it.  
There wasn't a response, so Clint assumed Bruce had probably turned away and was blushing profusely.  
He smiled to himself.  
For a second, he waited - waited to see if either of them would do something, but nothing.   
He silently moved himself to a grate a few feet away - an opening so he could actually see what was going on.   
Then, he waited.

It took a while, but after much tinkering on both scientists' parts, they finished whatever they were working on.   
"See? You're totally the spider kid!" Tony laughed. He was holding a portion of the substance and threading his fingers through it - holding it up like a kid with oobleck, a giddy smile on his face.  
Bruce merely laughed - it was so wholehearted though. His smile was wide and true - a kind that never seemed to emerge for any of the other Avengers.  
He shook his head as he laughed and extended his hand towards Tony.   
"Come on, put it down," he said, though not really meaning it.  
He extended his hand to Tony's and that's when Clint tensed up.

Tony hated being touched.

Does... Doesn't Bruce know that?

His heart rate accelerated a bit, and he leaned in more into the grate in the vent to get a better view.  
Bruce's hand was nearing Tony, and Clint braced for the worst, but, instead...  
He grasped Tony's hand gently and -

There was no flinch.

The two scientists smiled, and Bruce lowered Tony's hands from getting more of the substance in his hair than there already was.  
As his hand was still wrapped around Tony's arm, they both paused. And chuckled.   
The smiles they gave to each other were wide. Warm. Genuine.  
They stayed like that for a while - Bruce's hand on Tony's arm and just... Looking at each other.  
After a moment, Bruce let go of his grasp on Tony and said, "Alright, let's get you cleaned up."  
Tony laughed at that but, surprisingly, went along. He flexed his fingers with the gooey substance tangling on it as he followed Bruce to the shower they had on-lab.

'Huh', Clint thought.  
He smiled to himself.  
'Of course they're that close.'  
Then, he crawled away through the vents.

\--


End file.
